


Per aspera ad astra

by Shackett74



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:28:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22468657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shackett74/pseuds/Shackett74
Summary: Just some delving into Shepard's visit to Alchera, and before that Admiral Hackett's struggle on how to reach out to the resurrected Shepard...This story takes place at the end of the second chapter in the series Transformations and beginnings Anew (and will likely be added there later).
Comments: 11
Kudos: 5





	Per aspera ad astra

**I Arcturus station, Alliance Command, 2185.**

It was, after all, an odd situation having their commander back on active duty when it wasn't with the Alliance but _Cerberus_...  
It wouldn’t however deter either himself or Anderson from contacting Shepard.

Knowing his friend well, Hackett suspected David would probably write something straight forward and possibly blunt.

That's just how the man was, which Shepard fortunately knew too. One might believe two years of being deeply involved with galactic politics would rub off at least some of the rougher edges on his old time friend, but that had still to be seen... Hackett concluded half-ironic, half with sincere warmth.

That wasn't how Hackett personally preferred to do things, however. The Admiral certainly knew how to push the boundaries with regs and the such when circumstances needed it. But his position also demanded a certain behavior and level of formality.

And how enthusiastic he still might be privately, over having the commander back on duty, he couldn't allow himself to appear too personal in this first attempt of contact.

Hackett had been one of only two people to first get verified intel of Shepard being sighted on Omega, this afternoon. But he'd decided to wait to compose a mail until he got off his shift and was back in his private quarters. This wasn’t something one should write on the run on his omnitool in between meetings.

An acceptable reason to contact her had at least presented itself quickly, through the remaining dog tags on Alchera and the placing of the Memorial statue there.

While he usually hadn't any problem with composing letters, documents, reports, orders - writing countless of them every day - Hackett struggled with this particular mail.

Sitting in his tidy little private study, he didn’t find the balance he wanted between the formal and the personal. Reading it to himself he found the mail to be more formal than he intended. It almost seemed like he hid behind the ”we” he used several times, instead of an occasional ”I”. And maybe he did this time. 

But being a practical man he sighed and finally gave up, instead adding a greeting with a formal yet distinctly personal touch at the end.

_Godspeed to you, Commander_

He'd considered a capital letter on "you" but decided not to, on second thought.  
Maybe it was for the best with a little more of the formal than the opposite, after all. It would definitely be read by Cerberus anyway.

**II Planet Alchera, 2185**

Being 'back' on Alchera made Jane feel downright uneasy.

And while she'd been thankful at first for Hackett's initiative, walking around the white, very quiet landscape with its snow stained debris of the Normandy scattered around, made it damn eerie in her opinion.

As if the ghosts after those who hadn't made it out alive two years ago, now walked next to her, following her. Swirling around her and the slowly falling snowflakes while whispering and mumbling like distant echoes in her ears.

Nor did the creepy feeling improve the slightest knowing that her _own_ body had been somewhere on this planet too.  
 _This simply feels weird,_ the initial thought lingered in her mind when she slowly began walking around the crash site and last resting place of the original Normandy. 

Her uneasiness wouldn't deter her from going through with this mission, though. It _was_ personal after all.

Shepard also suspected the reasons for Admiral Hackett contacting her may not only have been to remind her of the Alliance or her obligations toward her lost crew. He likely knew _she_ needed to process it all by coming here.

The crash, their death, her own doom...

Being here made it real and tangible in a completely new way. A lot of mixed emotions collided inside of her.  
And she sudden realization flew by in her mind that this place wasn't the only thing eerie. Sometimes the Admiral's extreme perceptiveness could be damn scary too.

Taking her time screening the grounds for dog tags and clues, she vowed not to leave before she'd found every single tag and be able to give them all, living and dead, closure.

And with every dog tag she found, Shepard read out its name aloud and memorized each one of them carefully.  
Not for the sake of being able to write their names in a simple report along with the tags for Alliance Command.

She read every name out aloud and added an "I've got You, time to go home to Earth..", because it meant something to her. 

Rosamund Draven and Talitha Draven, _they'd been siblings. Poor, poor parents..._ Her heart ached for them.  
Caroline Grenado,   
Mandira Rahman _, the promising Bengali propulsion engineer._  
Carlton Tucks,  
Addison Chase,  
Silas Crosby, _the young man who'd always seemed to have a smile on his lips._  
Harvey Gladstone,  
Amina Waaberi,  
Germeen Barrett,  
Hector Emerson,  
Orden Laflamme,  
Monica Negulesco,  
Robert Felawa,  
Marcus Grieco,  
Raymond Tanaka, _another promising young officer, and Pressley's navigator assistant_.  
Alexei Dubuyanski,  
Helen Lowe, _the warm-hearted medical assistant to dr Chakwas._  
Abishek Pakti.

_I found you all at last..._

There were too many she hadn’t known at all of her crew, or only vaguely could connect a name with its owner’s face. Their time together had been too short, and eventful, to get to know them all.

 _  
_Maybe it was the informal ritual, repeated twenty times in earnest and patience. Maybe it was because of being stuck with her eyes on the ground for the larger part of two hours.

For when she finally lifted her eyes to the sky, she saw that the snowfall had stopped and the sky had cleared. And with it her sense of doom.  
Now Alchera was showing Shepard a beautiful star-filled sky, and a stunning greenish aurora borealis, northern lights...

Shepard’s gloomy mood and the eerie atmosphere were also gone, and she stood in awe, silently watching the beautiful wonders in the sky for some time.  
Simply remembering her crew and all their travels they'd managed on such a short time on that star-filled, beautiful sky.

There wasn’t much more she could do, but before she left Shepard chose the most beautiful ice-free spot she could find, and placed the Memorial statue there.

The ghostly whispers had disappeared, the eerie feeling was replaced with peaceful, serene silence.  
Maybe her dead crew had found some closure after all, now.  
She knew _she_ had, and that it had been a much-needed initiative.

When Shepard boarded the shuttle she turned around one last time delivering a promise into the stillness of Normandy's graveyard. 

"I promise you I will avenge you."


End file.
